Chapter Twenty-Four

Kadaj threw up for the last time over the boat. He felt so sick…what horror he had witnessed! Just thinking about it made him want to throw up again, but Sephiroth had told him that the boat had reached land and it was time to get off. As he headed towards the dock, Kadaj looked back at Tifa, who was staring at them with wide eyes. "Hey, what about the girl?"

"Leave her," Sephiroth ordered, without looking back. Kadaj nodded, wishing he hadn't dropped his ice cream. The poor ice cream hadn't deserved that…He jumped off the dock as the boat headed back towards the Galbadian shore. He looked over at Yazoo, who was dragging Cloud.

Kadaj blinked and then turned away from his brother, not offering to help as he went up to Sephiroth, "Where we goin'?" he asked Sephiroth, looking at him.

Sephiroth glared down at Kadaj. He blinked, what was Sephiroth so mad about? Kadaj fell back, just following Sephiroth, feeling bored. He wanted to go find Mother, but no, Sephiroth wouldn't let him! How rude! Mother had told Kadaj to find her and here this evil lunatic was saying no! Grr! Wait a second, what was he getting so mad about, hello! Sephiroth was walking right in front of him! 'Yes, but that isn't the real Sephiroth!' Kadaj told himself, 'I am! Now why did I forget that again?'

Kadaj shook his head, he missed his ice cream! He liked chocolate ice cream and he had dropped one because of…Kadaj felt like hurling again. 'Uh…I need to stop thinking about that! I've already thrown up five times-no wait, fifteen times already!'

Suddenly he felt something hit him in the head. Kadaj blinked…'oh', he had hit an evil branch. He really needed to watch where he was going…"IT BURNS!" he suddenly screamed. Sephiroth turned to look back at him with a confused look. Yazoo merely glanced at him, giving him a look that said I'm-gonna-shoot-you-later-today (or tomorrow).

"What was that for?" Sephiroth asked bluntly, looking at Kadaj with narrowed eyes. Kadaj smiled sheepishly and shrugged. If he said it a loud again-he die from horror, he knew he would! If he didn't melt first! This heat was killing him! Oh wait…hey there was a volcano here! Wait a second-there was a volcano here! When had that got here? When had he got here? Was he going crazy?

Suddenly Kadaj screamed, throwing up his hands and running around in circles around Sephiroth. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes even more-if it was even possible-and growled at Kadaj. Kadaj didn't pay attention as he yelled, "It burns! I'm dying! I'm melting! It's rain kitties! Ahhh!" Maybe Sephiroth should get Hojo to look at Kadaj…he seemed to be losing his mind.

'Oh wait…Hojo's dead…' Sephiroth thought sadly. Well, there was always one way to settle this problem! He gripped the Masamune's hilt and drew it out. He didn't really want to kill Kadaj because he only had three more revives…oh well.

"Mother JENOVA! Where are you! Rufus is an evil idiot! I'm melting Mother! I think I'm a Mother's boy!" Kadaj screamed. But he screams were suddenly cut off by Sephiroth slitting his throat.

"Yazoo, get the idiot while you're dragging Cloud, too."

"But-but! This is hard enough!" Yazoo whined, "And to think I let you use my gun!" Sephiroth glared at Yazoo and Yazoo instantly obeyed. It was a good thing Kadaj wasn't as heavy as Cloud…but this was still a hard job! "How much longer?"

"Not much…"

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Aeris blinked. "Who are you?" she asked, staring at the man in a white lab coat in front of her. "How do you know me?"

Aeris felt so confused. Who was this guy? How did he knew her? Well, she got her answer about two second later, "Oh, yeah, that's right, we never met. I am Professor Gast, your father."

Aeris blinked, her eyes widening. Her what! Her father? She had not expected that. Aeris could barley remember her real mother-she was seven when her real mother had died, and only twenty days old when her father had died! "Um…uh…oh…uh…hi," Aeris stuttered. What was she supposed to say? "How did you know it was me?" Aeris asked, blinking.

Professor Gast blinked, "Well I-" he was cut off by somewhere saying, "Where am I? Zack? Where did you take me?"

Everyone's attention went to Tifa as she sat up straight, looking around. Zack, who was still sitting beside Aeris, got up and went over to Tifa. "I brought you to Esthar like I said I would."

"But what about Cloud? We need to go find him! You saw all that blood!" Tifa suddenly grew angry at Zack, looking at him with fury.

Zack sighed, "Tifa, we can't help Cloud right now,"

Aeris looked from Zack to Tifa. Apparently he knew something that he hadn't told anyone…

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Tifa wasn't really sure why she was mad at Zack. It wasn't his fault that Cloud was like that-it was hers. And her she was getting mad at her for protecting her. She sighed and looked over to Aeris. She saw someone standing beside her friend and her eye flashed with confusion. "Who's that?" she asked at once.

"My father," Aeris replied simply.

"Who are you?" Professor Gast asked, looking at Tifa.

"Tifa, I thought you were dead…"

"I was…but here I am! Who is this Cloud that you keep speaking of?" Professor Gast, sitting down beside Aeris.

Suddenly Tifa jumped to her feet. Cloud had told her to tell Zack and Aeris only. But then she sat down again, sorrow spreading through her body. She sighed heavily, how was she supposed to tell them and just them without a fight? Tifa blinked, her eyes glazing over as she looked up at Barret. "Barret, Cloud said that you are now the leader of AVALANCHE, if you haven't figured that out yet…"

Zack bent down to look Tifa straight in the eye. She turned to look at him, staring at Zack. "Tifa," Zack began, "will you tell us what happened?"

Well, if she was going to explain to them what happened, might as well be now…she nodded, but she looked around at everyone, "You all have to leave except for Aeris and Zack. And Professor Gast, I realize that you must want to get to know your daughter, but you have to leave too, I'm afraid."

"Why do we all have to leave, Teef?" Barret asked, looking down at her.

Tifa seemed to suddenly flare with anger as she looked over at Barret and glared at him harshly, "Because Cloud told me only to tell Aeris and Zack!" Barret would have protested more if it hadn't been for Vincent turning to look at him, his crimson eyes flashing, "Barret, come on,"

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Once Vincent had left the room, he turned to look at Professor Gast with narrowed eyes. He had been one of the researchers that was working along side Hojo. His crimson eyes flashed, but he said nothing, instead, he leaned against a wall, his arms crossed. To Vincent's great displeasure, Professor Gast came over to him and just stood about a foot away, looking at him. Just as Vincent was tempted to walk away from Gast, Gast spoke up, "I know you…"

Vincent narrowed his eyes. His lips twisted into a snarl as he responded, "Indeed, you do, Gast." His voice was dark and full of hate.

Vincent didn't move as Gast spoke up again, "Why aren't you that Turk who fell in love with Lucrecia?"

Vincent unfolded his arms, glaring at Gast with even more hate than before. His claws scratched against the metal wall, leaving thin, but deep marks in it. The sound caught a few people's attention, including Squall's and Barret's. Barret, having the big mouth he did, spoke up, "Shut up you-"

Barret didn't finish as Vincent slammed his metal hand into the metal, breaking right through it. His eyes turned a deeper shade of crimson as he glared at Professor Gast. "Don't you mention Lucrecia, Gast! You're the one who helped Hojo create the monster that is out there right now killing people and hurting our friend!"

"But I-" Professor Gast stared at where Vincent had walked off to, his metal fingers curling into a fist. Gast's eyes widened at the sight of it, "Vincent! Wait! Turk…um…are you still a Turk? Get back here! What happened to your arm?"

If Vincent wasn't able to restrain himself, he knew that he would most certainly have killed Gast then. He didn't exactly understand where all the sudden rage was coming from-Professor Gast had quit his research long before the Sephiroth project had been completed. But Gast had still helped Hojo and even though he had left, Vincent blamed a lot of people-but over all, he blamed himself for Lucrecia trying to kill herself, but the JENOVA cells inside of her hadn't allowed it. Now she was stuck in a Mako crystal. And Vincent had ended up like this…but he still loved her even though she had put Chaos inside of him, and he would protect her rights from anyone who dared speak about the past. He knew why she had distanced herself from him-it was because she blamed herself for his father's death-but even then, Vincent did not blame her. And now here was Professor Gast, one of the very professors he had been assigned to protect come up to him and start talking about Lucrecia. Maybe that was where all the anger was coming from. Professor Gast had brought up the one person that Vincent had ever loved and lost and led to the tragic events that followed…maybe…either that Chaos was feeding Vincent his anger and urging him to be released…that was a possibility too.

At first Vincent was very reluctant to answer Professor Gast's question, but when he did, his voice was dripping with venom, "Hojo did that…"

Meanwhile, Barret blinked, staring at the hole in the metal wall, "Ya know, I think dat Vincent has somethin' against Professor Gast. Wonder what that is…"

"Judging by the look he just gave Aeris's dad, I would say he does," Yuffie said, staring at Vincent and Professor Gast.

Back to Vincent and Professor Gast…

"Professor Hojo did that? I knew he was evil…but to do that to a man! Oh…um…if you don't mind me asking, whatever happened to Lucrecia?" Professor Gast asked, watching Vincent as he continued walking down the hallway.

Vincent did not look at Professor Gast as he turned back around. Maybe, for now, he would need to hang around some other people-and hopefully, Tifa would be done talking to Aeris and Zack. Then, when they were out-he was not going to stick around if Professor Gast stuck to him like this trying to catch up on all of this. "Actually, I do mind, Gast. But, if it will shut you up, Lucrecia is stuck in a Mako crystal thanks to you and Hojo."

"Thanks to us? What did we do?" Professor Gast demanded, staring wide-eyed at Vincent. "I would never intentionally hurt Lucrecia!"

Back with Barret and the others, they could now hear what Vincent and Professor Gast were talking about. Yuffie, having much better hearing than Barret, heard every word of it and was looking at Vincent and Professor Gast with wide eyes.

"I mean because of you-you may not have realized it, but after she found me shot-she brought me back to life-but in the process, she put Chaos, the Planet's WEAPON inside of me. Then, she tried to commit suicide, but the JENOVA cells in her own body would not let her die and so she excepted being stuck in a Mako crystal. It was the images that Sephiroth was to commit that frightened her. Sephiroth is the thing you helped Hojo create before he killed you too." Vincent glared at Gast, his crimson eyes flaring. Within Vincent's mind, the demons sent him horrible pictures of his past, torturing him and haunting him with those selected images. This was why Vincent hated talking about Lucrecia…he wanted to see Lucrecia more than anything at the moment.

Gast seemed to fall silent, unable to speak. Clearly he had not expected that-any of it. "Lu-Lucrecia did this to you?" he finally gasped out, "And she tried to commit suicide for what she had done?"

Vincent nodded, "Yes, you are correct, but Lucrecia did not cut off my arm, Gast, no, that was Hojo."

Yuffie blinked as the door opened. Zack, Aeris, and Tifa came out, all had very grim looks on their faces. Tifa's eyes were distant and blank. Aeris seemed deeply disturbed and worry was etched on her features. Zack seemed angry and worried. In fact, from what Yuffie could tell, he was very angry. And she could only guess at who…Sephiroth.